Thoughts : Penitentiary (1979)
Week two of the I Saw What You Did podcast’s celebration of Black History Month marks my first foray into Blaxploitation for 2021, and luckily, it’s a film I knew little about and had yet to see. Penitentiary had been on my radar in the past, but I somehow seemed to overlook it in my past viewings of Blaxploitation films, but based on the recommendation from Millie and Danielle, now felt like as appropriate a time as any to jump on that watch session.
Martel Gordone (Leon Isaac Kennedy) is a grifter living on the road when he hitchhikes a ride with Linda (Hazel Spears), a prostitute traveling, living and working out of her van. Linda announces her intentions to bed Martel, but stops at a diner beforehand to meet a client, where Martel gets into a conflict with two strangers that land him in jail. He is immediately thrust into a volatile situation involving Jesse Amos (Donovan Womack) and his cadre of muscle : the unhinged Half-Dead Johnson (Badja Djola) and the sketchy Sweet Pea (Wilbur White). The group, along with notorious inmate Magilla Gorilla (Will Richardson), are terrorizing a young and naïve inmate named Eugene T. Lawson (Thommy Pollard), and due to Martel’s bunk assignment with Half-Dead, he finds himself involved. Martel quickly gains a reputation in the prison, along with the nickname Too Sweet (due to his love for Mr. Goodbars), and his reputation is cemented when he bests Half-Dead in an attempt to break him. After being moved into a cell with longtime inmate Hezzikia Jackson (Floyd Chatman), known by some as Seldom-Seen, Too Sweet begins to learn the true stakes involved in the crooked game he has become a part of.
Penitentiary is one of those rare cases in Blaxploitation films where the stylistic exploitation surpasses the Black aspect of the genre. The film is presented to us with all of the gravitas of a Greek tragedy, with a brief introduction to our protagonist presented in a worldly aspect ratio before he is abruptly plunged into his hero’s journey and reformed as Too Sweet. The supporting cast (and location, for that matter) fills in the proper roles as well… the institution in itself plays like the labyrinth, with Half-Dead serving as a Minotaur. Linda sends Too Sweet down his harrowing path in a manner similar to that of a siren. Hezzikia leans more towards the “Seldom Seen” Dionysian scale (pun intended), while Gene is an approximation of Demeter. Even Jesse exerts Zues-esque characteristics, albeit it with more mental manipulation than outright physical prowess and might. These are certainly not the only framing aspects present, as this device seems to be deliberate and deep rooted.
This framing mechanism is not used at the expense of the natural drama that comes from using prison as the subject of your film. Multiple aspects of prison culture are given deep examination, including institutionalization, machismo, order, sexuality and violence (and their intersectionality), pride, respect and personal discipline. Lots of visual shorthand is present in lieu of clunky expositional passages, and in turn, the indicated subtext is immediately understood without disrupting the forward momentum and pacing present in the film. The film is certainly a reflection of the times both visually and narratively, but because it is so well directed and precisely executed, it exceeds the range of the goals it likely set for itself (similar to The Warriors, which came out the same year).
This film has some of the best lighting I’ve seen in the Blaxploitation genre… budgetary constraints tend to make most of this films a bit of a struggle to watch, but Penitentiary not only has strong lighting, it’s incredibly dynamic as well, setting a very grim mood from the outset. The writing has an inspired, lifted quality to it, but is not without the absence of humor or heart-racing tension connected to the more violent sequences. The score swings between more traditional symphonic turns and tribal-inspired sequences, helping to ratchet the deeply primal emotional swings connected to prison time. The slight use of Dutch angles not only symbolizes how skewed the world of the film is for the characters trapped within it, but it brings to mind the existentialist nature of German Expressionism. The writing is by no means flat, but the actors cast are able to elevate what was on the page into richer emotional depths.
Leon Isaac Kennedy channels a lot of the same energy that makes Ice-T so popular, including unwavering confidence, a gift of gab, distinct looks and a badass streak a mile long. Thommy Pollard is so awkward that you immediately fear for his safety, giving his character room to find confidence in a place where character is a must. Floyd Chatman channels Mister Miyagi energy years before Pat Morita did, handing out bits of sage wisdom from the few cracks present in the walls of sternness and privacy he has built up. Donovan Womack plays the coy and calculated kingpin antagonist, surrounding himself with a wall of muscle and minions to separate him from his foes. Badja Djola ratchets up menace right to the boiling point with a very ground approach to psychopathy, making him genuinely scary in terms of screen presence. Will Richardson finds a very unique way to channel fear into comedy, with a payoff occurring once he allows himself to be painfully vulnerable in defeat. Hazel Spears, Wilbur White, Gloria Delaney, Ian Fox, Chuck Mitchell, Cephus Jaxon, Dwaine Fobbs, Ernest Wilson and more round out the large ensemble cast.
With the half-life of the Blaxploitation era spanning just under a decade, it makes sense that Penitentiary (a film that unofficially marked the end of the era) would be the truest glimpse at how well made films of the genre could truly be. This film is not only rich in all the aspects that make a good movie, but it is strong in all of the most enjoyable aspects of exploitation film as well, and it unashamedly aims for targets well beyond any it has a right to… more often than not, it hits the bullseye.
